Oceans

Portrait for @christoph
by @christoph
2021-02-28T12:00:01+00:00
Climate & Environment
Study points to a strong weakening of the Gulf Stream
Study points to a strong weakening of the Gulf Stream
Credit: Image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center / via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

The Gulf Stream system is weaker than it has been for at least 1,000 years. This is the result of a study by scientists from Ireland, Great Britain and Germany published in Nature Geoscience. To reconstruct the history of the current, the researchers examined data mainly from the ocean floor and ice going back several 100 to 1,600 years. According to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), which initiated the study, evidence was found that the weakening of the Gulf Stream system in the 20th century was more severe than at any time in the past 1,000 years. Researchers have long seen the slowdown as a result of human-induced climate change.

Portrait for @riegeros
by @riegeros
2020-11-06T06:00:01+00:00
Science • Nature
Coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia discovered
Coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia discovered
Credit: Great Barrier Reef Encounter / via Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0)

In the famous Great Barrier Reef in Australia, researchers of the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) have discovered a new coral reef. It is the first new discovery after 120 years. The reef is 500 meters deep - and thus larger than the Empire State Building in New York City. The research team came across the reef by chance when they were making a 3D map of the seabed with the help of the underwater robot SuBastian.